Nevada’s Scandal Plagued New Governor

The recently elected governor of Nevada is making international headlines for his involvement in several scandals, including a federal corruption investigation, highlighted in reviews of his first 100 days in office.

A former five-term Congressman, Republican Jim Gibbons has brought quite a bit of bad political baggage with him to the governor’s office. The most serious includes a federal investigation into his corrupt relationship with a defense contractor that claims it bribed Gibbons with money, travel and poker chips for his help in getting government contracts.

Authorities believe the owner of the Reno-based software company (Warren Trepp) showered Gibbons with expensive gifts and cash in exchange for his help in obtaining lucrative contracts with several government agencies while he served on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

Additionally, a high-tech military contractor in Sparks hired Gibbons’ wife as a “consultant” and paid her about $35,000 during the same time he helped the company get $2 million in federal earmark funding.

Gibbons has dismissed his ongoing scandals, attributing the media coverage to a Democratic conspiracy against him. In fact, he even accused Democrats of paying a major U.S. newspaper to publish recent articles of that investigation to help their party in the 2008 election.

Other scandals have also tainted the governor. Although he avidly opposes illegal immigration, Gibbons’ longtime housekeeper and nanny is an illegal immigrant who said her boss often made her hide in a basement to conceal her illegal status. Last October, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress accused Gibbons of making inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances.

No wonder a large crowd recently booed him at a major college basketball game in Reno. One of the state’s highly regarded political science professors said the governor has pretty much hit every roadblock he could have hit.